Circular Vows
by Hidden Treasures
Summary: They lay together in a blissful haze, tracing words of love and affirmation onto each other's skin.


They were twined tightly together on their little bed in a Norwegian inn. The Doctor was lying on his back, with Rose tucked up against his side. Her head was cradled between his shoulder and chest, the rhythm of his heartbeat echoing faintly in her ear. Her hand was resting on the center of his chest, directly over his one heart to better feel it beating. The Doctor had his nose nuzzled into her hair, and the arm she was laying on was wrapped around her shoulders. His other hand was inching its way towards hers on his chest.

Rose let out a soft sigh of contentment, so happy with the way things had turned out. Was it the ending she'd expected? No, but it was so much more than she could ever have imagined. While she was heartbroken for her Time Lord Doctor, now travelling the universe on his own, she was elated that she was able to spend forever with this new, human Doctor, and actually mean it. He wouldn't have to watch her wither and die, and then live on without her. As such, he was free to love her openly and freely.

The creation of this Doctor also meant that she didn't have to choose between him and her family; she'd been distancing herself from them ever since the Cannon began working. She knew it broke her mum's heart, but what else could she do? She was leaving them behind to find the Doctor, and hadn't planned on returning. But now she didn't have to leave behind her family. She almost couldn't believe it; she could have her family and friends, as well as her Doctor. She half expected to wake up and realize it was all a dream.

The Doctor's fingers traced lazy shapes and patterns across her stomach and over to her hip. Rose suppressed a shudder and smiled softly into his t-shirt. Her thumb absently massaged his chest, until her fingers began tracing a small, circular pattern across him. It was a pattern the Doctor always drew across her skin back before they'd been separated.

When she finished tracing it and began again, she felt the Doctor inhale sharply and stiffen. Confused, Rose lifted herself up on her elbow to look at him.

"All right there, Doctor?"

His eyes were shining brightly and his bottom lip was trembling slightly as his Adam's apple bobbed in his throat.

"What's wrong?" she asked, laying her hands on his cheeks.

Panic began to set in. Had she done something wrong? Had she accidentally written out an insult in some alien language? Was he suffering from some side effect of the metacrisis?

His mouth open and closed silently for a few moments before he croaked, "Do you know what you just wrote?"

Rose let out a soft exhale, relieved that no unseen force was harming him.

She then smiled sheepishly and said, "Well, no. But it's something you always traced on me back, you know, before. I always thought it was just a random pattern, but it always felt so nice, and it was always the same shapes. But if it was some alien curse word or something, I'm sor–"

The Doctor silenced her with a gentle kiss. Rose's eyes fluttered shut as she moved in to deepen the kiss. But he pulled back far too soon, his eyes shining brightly again with what she now recognized as pure, unadulterated love. It was dizzying to be the recipient of that look, and she felt her own love welling up within her, constricting her chest and settling in her throat. She couldn't help but brush her lips across his lips, his cheeks, his jaw, everywhere she could reach.

He was grinning up at her when she pulled back. She felt her own lips curve upward in response.

"So what did I accidentally say?" she asked, nudging him playfully in the ribs.

His face fell slightly, but he composed it once more before lifting himself so he was sitting up against the headboard. Rose leaned up against him, hugging his arm tightly to her chest.

"Those weren't just random patterns," the Doctor murmured softly, tracing the familiar set of symbols against her bare thigh. "They're my native language. Circular Gallifreyan."

Rose repeated it reverently after him, and then asked, "Gallifreyan? So that's what your planet was called?"

The Doctor blinked down at her, his eyebrows furrowed.

"I never told you the name?" he asked, sounding upset.

Rose shook her head and shrugged, "You told me some stuff about it, but never the name."

The Doctor rested his cheek against the top of her head and sighed, "I'm sorry. But yes, that's what my planet was called. Gallifrey. And that circular writing you'd probably seen all over the TARDIS is called Circular Gallifreyan."

"So what did I write?"

The Doctor began to trace the letters again against her skin and said quietly, "There's no perfect translation. You lot are so limited in your vocabulary and tenses. But as near as I can say, it's ' _I love you_ '. But it's so much more than that. It's a promise. It's a promise to love you for forever, no matter what, no matter when, no matter who. It's me promising myself to you, and to you alone, for the rest of my lives."

Rose felt moisture stinging at her eyes at the sheer beauty and magnificence of what he was saying. But a realization suddenly struck her with a dizzying intensity.

"But you'd been writing that on me even when you were my first you," she said, astounded. "After that day with my father and the Reapers, when you found me in the library and just sat with me for hours watching bad telly."

The Doctor gave her a soft smile and said, "I loved you back then, too."

Rose was breathless for a moment, her heart hammering against her ribs with this revelation.

"I loved you then, too," she said shyly.

She then carefully traced the words onto his bare thigh. She heard him swallow thickly and his hands were trembling, fisted as they were against her hip.

"I love you," she said softly. "Always. Forever."

The Doctor sounded choked as he said, "Those words are part of a bonding ceremony my people had. It's similar to the marriage ceremony you lot have, but it's more permanent than a human marriage. It was a way to bind two people together, and keep them bound even through regenerations."

"Good," she said simply, lifting herself up to straddle his thighs. "I loved you when you were in leather, I loved you when you wore pinstripes, and I would have loved whoever you became. I love you, past, present and future. I don't think there could be any version of you that I wouldn't love. In fact, the you that wore velvet and a cravat was pretty fit, too."

His jaw slackened in surprise. She winked saucily at him, grinning that tongue-touched smile he loved so much.

"What…how…when…?"

"I'll tell you later," she whispered before capturing his lips with hers in a fierce kiss.

Their noses smushed and their teeth clacked, but it was so beautiful and perfect. Rose sighed into his mouth, and his tongue took the opportunity to dart in and trace hers.

She yanked at his hair and scratched at his scalp, making him gasp and shudder beneath her. His hips were beginning to rock up insistently against hers. A thrill of arousal shot through her as she ground herself down on him. They each moaned in pleasure at the friction.

Rose pulled back with a wet pop before she leaned down to press open-mouthed kisses along his neck and jaw. He groaned her name when she nibbled at his Adam's apple. He finally remembered that he had hands, and he plunged them under her shirt. His fingers traced more of those circles across her back, her belly, her breasts, making her shiver with every new location he marked.

"My Rose," he murmured into her collar bone.

"My Doctor," she replied.

She lifted up to look at him again, and was taken aback by the tenderness in his eyes. She cupped his cheeks and slowly pressed her lips to his. This kiss was slow and languid, not nearly as frantic as they'd been.

When finally they couldn't stand it anymore, they divested each other of their clothes before joining together for the first time. It was slow and tender at first, until the flames fanned higher and hotter, and all thoughts of slow left their minds.

They rocked together, fast and hard and desperate, each trying to make the other fall over first. They finally exploded together in a deafening crescendo, falling through space and time and oblivion, cradled in each other's arms.

Sated and sleepy, they cuddled together in a post-coital fog. Their limbs were tangled and the sweat was cooling rapidly from their overheated skin. Rose snuggled closer to the Doctor, feeling as though she couldn't get close enough to him. She buried her face against his chest and listened to the sound of his heartbeat return to its normal rhythm.

"I love you," he murmured groggily into her hair.

She squeezed her arm around his waist and said, "Love you, too."

Rose was about to drift off to sleep when she felt his fingers tracing those beautiful circles against her back. Now that she knew what they meant, they took on a new significance, and she felt completely and utterly loved and cherished by the man beside her. She smiled sleepily into his chest and let his gentle ministrations relax her closer and closer to unconsciousness, feeling happy and content and ready to begin their true forever together.


End file.
